How to send 4 separate feeds to 4 tvs

[hcproductions]

Hello,

I'm signed on for a project that is using four different televisions. I have a 1.1 mac pro equipped with 2 dual port graphics cards, (so a total of four) but one of the outs does not work (so that gives me three total). I'm planning on using Qlab 2, so I was wondering what the best way would be to go about doing this.

I also have available a power mac with dual monitor outputs. Would it be possible to run this computer as a slave computer and just use it for its outputs, that would be sending the signal from Qlab on the Mac pro? If this is possible, how would I set it up?

I was thinking of also possibly using the Triplehead2go, but I'd like to have this as a last resort since it would split up one image to three. Would it be easy to split up one single image (say I wanted separate text on each tv) using Qlab 2 and triplehead2go? Sounds tough, but if someone has experience doing it, then I'd try it out. But remember, I would need four, so I would use one of the outs on the Mac Pro for a CRT Monitor to see what I'm doing, one output directly to a tv, and then the other output split three ways to the other three.

Anyone know any better ways?

 

[MarshallPope]

I haven't used the video portion of Qlab, but, if you are just using still pictures/text, you could just photoshop three images together, squishing them down to the right ratio. It probably wouldn't give you the best resolution, but it would work in a pinch.

 

[cdcarter]

I also have available a power mac with dual monitor outputs. Would it be possible to run this computer as a slave computer and just use it for its outputs, that would be sending the signal from Qlab on the Mac pro? If this is possible, how would I set it up?

You could certainly have a second computer also running Qlab, taking in MSC commands from the primary computer. OS X actually supports sending MIDI over the network. The one thing to keep in mind is you need to rent the full version of qlab for both machines, not just the video version.

 

[museav]

Maybe I missed it, but what exactly are you trying to do? You seem to be discussing a local monitor and four "TVs", but are you trying to send the same image to all of them, split an image across some of them, send different images to each one or what?

A secondary question, but what are the "TVs" and local monitor? What signals do they accept? Are they all the same format (4:3, 16:10, 16:9, etc.)?

 

[hcproductions]

I'm trying to send four separate signals to four different televisions. For some parts of the production, the images will be repeated amongst the different signals, for other parts, they all four will have to be different. I would like a monitor to see what is happening on the computer, so that's one output taken up, and then four other outputs so I can send a different signal to each of the tvs. This is why I was thinking the triplehead2go could be somewhat effective, but not exactly what I want.

Since the powermac is not an Intel based computer, I would not be able to install Qlab 2 on it. So I guess that idea is out of the question...unless there is a way to just use the computer for it's outputs. But it doesn't sound like I can quite do that.

I'm not exactly sure what the tvs are yet, I'll find out at a later date. I'm just trying to get a preliminary feel for how to go about doing this. I'm assuming I'll be going into the RCA, since I have a lot of BNC cable to use. This, of course, would require the adapters to do, which I also have.

 

[hcproductions]

I'm also considering a Mac Pro with 4 different graphics cards, which is capable of achieving my goal. Has anyone had any experience with a quad core running this set-up, or would getting the 8 core be the better bet? Can the processing power of a quad core handle Qlab 2 sending all of these images to different outputs? I'd like to save the money on it, but if the processing power has to be 8 core then I'd have to go for that.

 

[Sony]

If this is a really complex show you may want to consider renting a media server, and the associated equipment. Just a suggestion, it would be a lot easier than using a desktop computer, possibly cheaper too.

 

[Footer]

Its all well and good until you want different content on each monitor. With that statement, you throw the tripple head out the window. At that point, if your not doing video, I would probably say get a dedicated computer for each display and gang their control with either a keyboard linking software or something like that with midi. Your other option would be to rent a Watchout system or rent a media server. Either way, its going to be more complicated then you currently are looking at.

 

[ruinexplorer]

I don't have experience with Qlab, so I cannot comment on the capability of the program. However, in broadcast and professional AV, they often use a matrix routing switcher like this. You could rent something like this from many AV companies or purchase a more consumer level one yourself. This does require the use of multiple sources that you then choose which source to send where. This particular model allows for IP control as well, which could possibly take commands from Qlab, though as stated I don't know the program's capabilities.

 

[hcproductions]

I don't have experience with Qlab, so I cannot comment on the capability of the program. However, in broadcast and professional AV, they often use a matrix routing switcher like this. You could rent something like this from many AV companies or purchase a more consumer level one yourself. This does require the use of multiple sources that you then choose which source to send where. This particular model allows for IP control as well, which could possibly take commands from Qlab, though as stated I don't know the program's capabilities.

This sounds interesting, I've actually heard of this before used in theater applications. Has anyone had experience using Qlab or a similar video software and a video matrix? I'm still thinking of getting the 8 core mac with four of the graphics cards and just running four outputs from it using Qlab to reduce any possibility of different equipment screwing up. That way it would be one source, one computer, and then sending the outputs out. Qlab 2 can handle up to 8 screens, so I'm assuming I should be fine with this set up. I have never fooled with a matrix or networking devices, so I'm not very confident in using it yet. Does anyone know of any good tutorial sites for these things? Or if my 8 Core plan would work properly?

 

[museav]

I believe that using a matrix switcher or router would be somewhat redundant. In this case as you would still need the four graphics outputs from the computer(s) (five if you include the local monitor) and to have QLab control the playback of the files on the computer(s), since QLab will apparently handle addressing up to 8 outputs as part of the programming that seems to then make the routing provided by an external router redundant. And if you went with the type of router shown you'd be looking at only cut type transitions, no dissolves or anything unless you maybe built that into the QLab programming (e.g. an animation cue to dissolve one source out, then a cue to switch the router then another animation cue to dissolve another source in).

I also think that QLab lets you split images across displays, which could provide some other options if you wanted it. That is starting to get into Dataton WATCHOUT type applications and I know they recommend one computer to do the programming and then a separate playback computer for each display, all tied via Ethernet.

 

[hcproductions]

Excellent. Great info with the redundancy of the matrix/switcher, that makes sense.

I think I'm going to go with the Mac Pro, and try using 5 outputs from that (4 tvs and the monitor).

I've used Qlab 2 before and used three outputs on a computer (2 and a monitor). It seemed to work well enough, so I'll try it with the four outs. I think you can do some cool stretches over multiple outputs which would give some nice flexibility.

Having never used watchout, I'm unfamiliar with the concept of linking the computers together via Ethernet for multiple displays. Is this something I set up using Watchout, or could I set it up using qlab as well? I'm going to try just using the one computer, and I'm hoping that will provide enough processing power to handle all the outs without worrying about linking multiple computers. I suppose I'll find out when I test it out. If anyone else has some experience with it, that'd be great too. Thanks all for the help